In Part 1 of this series FreeMail: Perception is Reality, we started talking about the perceptions people have about Freemail accounts (yahoo, hotmail, gmail, etc.) and their use as “business” email addresses.  In Part 2, we’ll be exploring more tangible business reasons why a business should not use “freemail” or “personal” email accounts for business communication.

Beyond the issues of perception, there are significant business continuity and security concerns associated with using “freemail” accounts for business. 

Business is about Relationships

Case in point: Roger is an accountant with a good size practice and a great reputation.  During the busy tax season, he contracts Margret to do some tax preparation for his clients.  Margret contacts the clients assigned to her and works closely with them over a series of weeks or months; they exchange emails to and from her personal “freemail” account frequently.  As time goes by, the clients build their relationship and level of comfort with Margret herself rather than Roger’s business.  After tax season, clients continue to contact Margret for their questions and expert advice with no idea that she is no longer working with Roger.  Just like that, Roger has allowed (even helped) his clients find another accountant.

This is not a “worst case scenario.” In this particular case, no malice was intended by anyone -- but the result was that Roger lost a client.  It could be worse if Margret were an employee who left to work for a competitor, or struck out on her own with all the contacts she established while working with Roger.  By enabling employees to communicate with clients outside the control or bounds of Roger’s practice he unwittingly gave his clients permission to build relationships with individuals instead of with his business.

What could have Roger done to prevent this? If Roger had taken control of how business communication was handled in his organization and limited it to his own domain (Margret@Roger’sDomain.com), he could have limited his exposure to this sort of issue.  It is possible (even easy) to forward Margret@Roger’sDomain.com to someone else in his organization after her departure.  Sadly, as it worked out Roger’s hands are tied.  He has no right to Margret’s personal email and his clients are free to do business with whomever they choose.

The legal issues involving employers reading employee email is beyond the scope of this article, but it seems well established that an employer has NO RIGHTS to an employees personal email account.

Risky Business

While they may be of little concern to personal users, freemail services have a number of security concerns that are of particular interest to business users.

Many businesses have been exposed to so much spam or bogus email from many of the popular “freemail” services that they choose not to accept any email from them at all.  If the service you use is blacklisted by someone you are sending a message to, you may not receive a notification that your message did not reach its intended recipient.  This can cause issues or delays and miscommunication with clients, customers and vendors.  In fact, some internet vendors will not ship orders purchased using an “anonymous” or “unverifiable” email address such as a “freemail” account.

Many “freemail” services are popular targets for spam, phishing, hackers, crackers, and other unsavory aspects of the internet. Based on sheer numbers of accounts they host these services are likely targets for internet crooks who attempt to steal sensitive information or spread malware. While many of these services scan email, it’s easy to see why relying on them for important business communications can be a risky proposition.